The University of Wisconsin Press

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Travel / Latin America / Literature and Criticism

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The Mexico City Reader Edited by Rubén Gallo The Americas Ilan Stavans, Series Editor, Irene Vilar, Associate Editor The first in The Americas new series of illustrated city readers "In spite of its size, its proximity to the United States, and its extraordinarily vibrant cultural life, Mexico City remains almost invisible as a literary locale to North American readers who do not know Spanish. Rubén Gallo undertakes to fill this gap with his anthology of writings about the city, and he does so with great skill, insight, and verve."—Maarten van Delden, author of Carlos Fuentes, Mexico, and Modernity Mexico City is one of Latin America's cultural capitals, and one of the most vibrant urban spaces in the world. The Mexico City Reader is an anthology of "Cronicas"—short, hybrid texts that are part literary essay, part urban reportage—about life in the capital. This is not the "City of Palaces" of yesteryear, but the vibrant, chaotic, anarchic urban space of the 1980s and 1990s—the city of garbage mafias, necrophiliac artists, and kitschy millionaires. Like the visitor wandering through the city streets, the reader will be constantly surprised by the visions encountered in this mosaic of writings—a textual space brimming with life and crowded with flâneurs, flirtatious students, Indian dancers, food vendors, fortune tellers, political activists, and peasant protesters. The essays in this anthology about this most delirious of megalopolises were written by a panoply of writers, from well-known authors like Carlos Monsiváis and Jorge Ibagüengoitia to younger figures like Fabrizio Mejía Madrid and Julieta García González. Rubén Gallo is assistant professor of Latin American literature in the department of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Cultures at Princeton University. Media & bookseller inquiries regarding review copies, events, and interviews can be directed to the publicity department at publicity@uwpress.wisc.edu or (608) 263-0734. (If you want to examine a book for possible course use, please see our Course Books page. If you want to examine a book for possible rights licensing, please see Rights & Permissions.)

October 2004 LC: 2004016474 F 368 pp.    6 x 9     68 b/w illus. Paper $19.95 s ISBN 978-0-299-19714-8 Cloth $65.00 s ISBN 978-0-299-19710-0 ADD TO CART